Fernandina and Llaima Eruption Updates for 4/13/2009 – Updated!

UPDATE 4/13/09 at 12PM: The NASA Earth Observatory has posted a nice MODIS image showing the plume from the Fernandina eruption drifting out over the Pacific.

We have a few more details on the ongoing eruption at Fernandina in the Galapagos Islands. Officials from the Parque Nacional Galápagos (PNG) flew over the island (in spanish) and saw the eruption is coming from a several-kilometer-long fissure vent that flows towards the sea, dividing into multiple flows and then coalescing when it reaches the sea. There is also a lot of vapor being produced at the ocean entrance of the lava flows (not surprisingly). You can see the fissure erupting – looks like what we like to call the “curtain of fire” phase – in the first few picturs of the photo gallery at the bottom of this article. So far, the iguanas of Fernandina aren’t thought to be in much danger from the eruption.